Who would have ever thought that running could become a form of graffiti – or rather graffiti for the impaired. Thanks to a new Nike+ GPS app, you can now track your runs on the map and connect your speed to a location. To promote this new app Boondoggle Amsterdam came up with the idea to organize a graffiti contest on Facebook, called ‘Take Mokum’ (Amsterdam’s local nickname). The ten tags with the most ‘likes’ on Facebook will be exhibited in the Nike Runhouse, a new ‘running club’ in the Amsterdam Van Baerlestraat. The club is only accessible for members of the Nike Running community on Facebook – not making it a place for everyone that is interested in running seems a bit of a missed opportunity. The winners will also win a pair of auto-designed NikeiD’s LunarGlide+2. What a great way to activate your audience.

Anomaly – opening its Amsterdam office at the end of last year – has hired Gaston Serpenti as Digital Creative Officer. Serpenti is coming from Boondoggle Amsterdam, the agency he founded about 5 years ago with Tom de Bruyne – who left Boondoggle last year to found Sue Amsterdam with Astrid Groenewegen. The hire has been made partly possible by both Nike and Converse, recently appointing Anomaly to handle local business initiatives. Serpenti has an impressive track record, winning Spins, Webbies, and Lions. His most successful cases were Take Mokum for Nike and KLM Surprise. These cases also helped to make Boondoggle Digital Agency of the Year in 2011. Hazelle Klonhammer, MD at Anomaly about Serpenti’s hire: “Exceptional digital talent is rare in this industry. That’s why we feel very fortunate to have him onboard.” We’ll be looking forward to see his work for Anomaly.

We weren’t physically there when last night no less than 30 ‘Spins’ (rings, either gold or silver) were awarded to the best digital work of the Benelux at the SpinAwards. Instead, we were mingling with the lesser gods at the NewWork Pre-Party. After ten, though, when the SpinAwards opened their doors for the after party, we were able to congratulate all the winners in person. First of all, Tribal DDB. The big winner with three golden awards; two for Obsessed with sound and one for KLM Tile & Inspire. On top of that Tribal won the agency of the year award. Lemz also won big with five Spins. Three Silver Spins went to Taskforce Tracing Bomb makers, targeted at teenagers making their own bombs around New Years and showing the impact proudly on YouTube. The Taskforce downloaded the videos and re-uploaded them with a warning to the bomb makers. Lemz also won two silver spins with KLM Live Reply. And – not much of a surprise – KLM became advertiser of the year. Buutvrij For Life won two awards with their ‘Pass it on day’ – they asked all their Facbook friends to form a line through Amsterdam to pass on their office interior when they were moving offices. Unofficially they also won a third award together with Cote d’Azur for ‘Everything smells like chocolate.’ Boondoggle won two awards with ‘Cordeals’ for Cordaid and with Medi-Plaza.nl for the government. The latter case is slightly similar to the Taskforce concept; consumers who were buying medicines online were led to Medi-Plaza, when about to make the transaction they were confronted with the message that buying medicines online is a dangerous affair. Red Urban won two awards with the Russian Roulette app for Duyves and their ‘Like’ campaign for KPN. Click on picture to see the entire list of winners.

We received an e-mail from Audentiy’s Niels den Otter about a new Nike film – featuring Moussa Coly, who lives and plays in Pigalle for Goutte D’or – for which he did the music and sound design. Den Otter: “My inspiration for designing the sound in this film comes from how I see Paris; a city full of contrasts: stylized shops and fashion mecca, while at the same time a melting pot of different races, tough neighbourhoods, and street culture. That’s why I chose for harsh, realistic sounds in a stylized way. I listened to ‘The Weeknd‘ and used a deep and ominous bass with a very slow pace, steadily becoming somewhat softer with the help of the floating and vibrant Prophet synthesizer. I made it all build up to the climax of the question: “For whom do you play?” and then made it dissolve in the echo and its delay“. The film searches for a position that celebrates both the super star as well as the man in the street – something we saw before in the Copa Barrio commercials made for Nike by W+K. It was created by Stephane Ashpool and produced by Marc Madeleyn at Cake Film, directed by the young and upcoming director Paul Geusebroek – known for directing Dutch music videos for bands like The jeugd van tegenwoordig – and shot by Menno Mans.

Wherever you are in the city, you’re favourite sport should always be with you is Nike’s thought behind this dressed up ad ‘peperbus’ (pepper mill) that can be used as a sports attribute – click on image to see the entire picture. Here and here two more. There’s a URL on each peperbus that refers to a short film in which a successful athlete talks about his/her sport (in Dutch) and demonstrates how to use the outdoor furniture. Another great example of a medium turning into the message. Created by Undog, Goedbezig! Producties, and Centercom.

The first commercial ever in which Nike and Adidas live peacefully in co-existence, we thought. Nope, not true. It is Greenpeace that wants to educate us about these love brands. It’s a good thing that Marco Della Coletta and Zoe D’Amaroclearly (Godmother) can show off their skills while helping Greenpeace in its fight for a better world. But we don’t really get it. That is, we do get that Nike and Adidas are playing with toxic polluters. But why create a brand film – with breakdancers, a Snoop Dog look alike, and a logo that communicates water in Chinese – that makes Nike and Adidas look über cool, if you want to make these same brands look uncool? The e-mail accompanying this “cross media campaign” explained it wasn’t made with the help of any big agency. Well, it’s good to see that the good old advertising agencies can still have added value in getting an apt message across.